Russia is paying a high price Why US experts expect Putin's offensive to slow down

Russian troops have been advancing relentlessly in eastern Ukraine for months. But they are paying a high price for this, which could soon have an impact.

US military experts expect the ground offensive by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine to slow down soon. "The current summer offensive is likely to peak in the coming weeks or months," wrote the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its latest report. After that, the pace of Russian attacks will slow down.

The reason given by the observers was that the troops planned by the Russian army command for the offensive had been decimated; reserves were exhausted. The army had to divide its forces between the attacks in the Donbass, the stalled offensive in the Kharkiv region and the defense against Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk. "Russian forces do not have the personnel and material to continue the intensive offensive efforts in the long term," the report states.

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Rapid Russian territorial gains

The Russian advance has actually been underway since October 2023, when the Ukrainian summer offensive in the south came to a standstill. Recently, the Russians have been gaining ground faster and faster. Ukraine had to give up the long-defended outpost of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region. Nevertheless, ISW experts classify this as a limited tactical success for Russia. A strategically significant breakthrough at the front has not yet been achieved. However, the Ukrainian defenders are also exhausted.

The Ukrainian General Staff reported 142 attempted Russian assaults on Thursday, 30 of which were in the direction of the long-embattled city of Pokrovsk alone.

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dpa